The Right Mix Gives Your Digital Health Accelerator A Competitive Edge
Look around. Just about every life sciences company is doing the same thing—building a digital health accelerator. And that’s a good and a bad thing.
From my experience, the value of driving innovation is essential for companies to compete in today’s competitive world. And that’s good, very good. And I encourage more companies to adopt the accelerator model for many practices in the corporate environment–from producing innovation to brand planning and tactical execution. The bad thing is that many accelerators correctly focus on the key elements of innovation, but fail to correctly modulate the mix to provide an optimum environment for success. Just as all companies are different (yet often have a similar goal), the accelerator must leverage key internal strengths and weaknesses to optimize the process.
I’ve seen too many accelerators that seem to copy a process rather than invent their own. And to add insult to injury, they cobble together a staff, define the objectives around lofty goals of patient-centricity and clinical disruption and expect rapid results that are directly linked to profitability.
It’s tough being an accelerator.
The process of innovation is complicated, simple, fragile and wonderful. And the act of “building” an accelerator can be similar. It’s essential that the building blocks be established in a way to take advantage of the existing realities that define the company. Some companies (think about those big consumer brands making inroads into health) may require less “creativity” and more “clinical” sense. While a traditional pharma company may need to specifically focus on fostering creativity around their core competence of science and medicine.
PROMOTED
So, think of your accelerator a bit like a sound mixing board. The final composition and volume is a function of many factors that can be as important as the sheet music itself. Here are some that make my top ten list.
- Creativity. The secret sauce to innovation that often defines the process.
- Clinical. The core aspects of science and medicine that come to life in the laboratory and clinical office.
- Consumer. The powerful end-user that most commonly benefits most from the innovation.
- Technology. The domain of the engineer or geek, it’s something that can provide fresh insights into solving a problem.
- Structure. Freedom to fail is a key component, but some aspect of structure (different for every company) can be the guiding hand of innovator to help shape and mold the process.
- Autonomy. Conversely to structure, the team must have a sense of freedom to find new paths and question convention.
- Purpose. The spark of innovation is defined by the value placed around the efforts. The accelerator can be less a lab and more a cathedral of innovation to help change the world.
- Speed. Set goals and push to get things done.
- Diversity. Ideas come in all sizes and shapes. Build a team that allows thinking beyond the expected and conventional
- Heritage. An accelerator is still part of a parent organization. You must recognize the values and heritage that defines your company and have that reflected in your work.
Your list will almost certainly change–perhaps even become smaller. But for many typical accelerators of today, this is a good starting point. Yet that’s half the battle. The second half is around crafting the right mix to maximize internal strengths and supplement those that are weak.
An accelerator’s purpose is to foster an environment that finds unique and successful innovations. Cookie-cutter solutions are never accepted. So, why would you ever use a generic, cookie-cutter template to create yours?
